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Why has my cabinet not been upgraded from ADSL to FTTC?

Baglady
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Re: Why has my cabinet not been upgraded from ADSL to FTTC?

@Gandalf Thank you for posting your reply from OpenReach - I appreciate the transparency! :slightly_smiling_face:

For your information, below is the reply I got from OpenReach - on my fifth attempt to get an answer!

  • "...I been in contact with our capacity team and the Project managers that deal with upgrades.  They have all come back to advise that the reason why it was not upgraded was down to a couple reasons such as business case requirements not being met or commercial criteria.  Halifax cabinet 10 has never been in a plan and this is usually down to other service providers being in the area so Openreach cannot claim it on their contracts...."

This reply simply does not make sense for the following reasons:

  • How can all the surrounding cabinets meet 'business case requirements' and/or 'commercial criteria' but ours does not?? That claim cannot be true as we are completely surrounded by OpenReach fibre cabinets, and these clearly met the requirements/criteria.
  • The claim that there are other service providers is completely untrue. There are no other fibre service providers in the area for my address which is hosted by this cabinet (cabinet 10). I even double-checked that this has not changed, and there are still no fibre providers.

I've attached a map (from Ofcom) of the available broadband in my area. Cabinet 10 is where the blue pin is located and serves the pink rectangle which is completely surrounded by OpenReach fibre. As is evident from the map, this cabinet is located in a residential area. All of the surrounding cabinets which were upgraded in 2010 serve similar numbers of households as served by Cabinet 10. How did Cabinet 10 fail to meet the 'business case requirements' or the 'commercial criteria' when all the surrounding cabinets met them? There is no commercial difference between the areas/households served by those other cabinets (i.e. 9, 11, 12, 14, 23, 24, 25, 26, 31, 40, 43, 50, 67, 88, 90, 98, 129, 136, etc) and Cabinet 10.

I do not see why the 120+ households served by this cabinet should have to establish a 'Community Fibre Partnership' and part-fund the upgrade of our cabinet which OpenReach clearly forgot to upgrade at the same time as all the other cabinets in our area. 😠

Gandalf
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Re: Why has my cabinet not been upgraded from ADSL to FTTC?

Thanks for the detail @Baglady 

I think we'd struggle to find out more information or greater clarity on Openreach's internal decisions I'm afraid.

All I can suggest is to keep an eye on the progress and chase this up towards the end of the year. 

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
Mustrum
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Re: Why has my cabinet not been upgraded from ADSL to FTTC?

@Baglady  without knowing the exact address it is hard to check, but it appears Virgin Media offer services in your area.

If this is the case and lots of the street had taken up their services, that could be the reason why Openreach did not think it worth while.

Have you checked a comparison site?

What does the dsl checker say you can get?  BT Broadband (btwholesale.com)

 

 

Baglady
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Re: Why has my cabinet not been upgraded from ADSL to FTTC?

Hi @Mustrum,

I have checked on a couple of comparison websites, and have found that Virgin is available for one of the postcodes serviced by this cabinet. However, Virgin is not available for my postcode or any of the other postcodes serviced by Cabinet 10. The majority of the households on this cabinet have no choice but standard ADSL broadband.

I'm not entirely certain what specific information I am looking for on the dsl checker... is it the speed range for down/upload for my address? If so, why is it so variable for the addresses on my road? I know it depends on how far you are from the cabinet, but my neighbour's who are further from it have a better ADSL speed range than we do! 😲

  • our address: download is 6.5-15, upload up to 1
  • our neighbour (who is further from the cabinet): download is 8.5-19; upload is 1.5
  • our neighbour (who is closer to the cabinet): download is 10-19.5; upload is 1.5

Am I misinterpreting this information? 🤔

Moderator's note by Dick (Strat): Full quote of preceding post removed as per Forum rules.

Mustrum
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Re: Why has my cabinet not been upgraded from ADSL to FTTC?

@Baglady  rather than check addresses on the dsl checker, check with your phone number - you mentioned in an earlier post your speeds were slow and latency high. So that needs sorting to ensure you at least are getting the best speeds available.

 

Looking on google maps. depending on your address it would appear quite a challenging area to provide fibre. As mentioned in the early posts, switching to an ISP that supports USO may be your best bet.

Priorities have changed over the years, you are probaly 10 years too late for FTTC, and likley to have a wait for FTTP.

jab1
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Re: Why has my cabinet not been upgraded from ADSL to FTTC?


@Baglady wrote:

@Mustrum wrote:

@Baglady  without knowing the exact address it is hard to check, but it appears Virgin Media offer services in your area.

If this is the case and lots of the street had taken up their services, that could be the reason why Openreach did not think it worth while.

Have you checked a comparison site?

What does the dsl checker say you can get?  BT Broadband (btwholesale.com)

 

 


Hi @Mustrum,

I have checked on a couple of comparison websites, and have found that Virgin is available for one of the postcodes serviced by this cabinet. However, Virgin is not available for my postcode or any of the other postcodes serviced by Cabinet 10. The majority of the households on this cabinet have no choice but standard ADSL broadband.

I'm not entirely certain what specific information I am looking for on the dsl checker... is it the speed range for down/upload for my address? If so, why is it so variable for the addresses on my road? I know it depends on how far you are from the cabinet, but my neighbour's who are further from it have a better ADSL speed range than we do! 😲

  • our address: download is 6.5-15, upload up to 1
  • our neighbour (who is further from the cabinet): download is 8.5-19; upload is 1.5
  • our neighbour (who is closer to the cabinet): download is 10-19.5; upload is 1.5

Am I misinterpreting this information? 🤔


@Baglady I don't think you are 'missing something' - my suspicion is that the 'survey' done by BTOR when they decided to upgrade all the surrounding cabinets but yours was done by someone not actually bothering too much.

The information you are looking for is what services - ADSL, FTTC, FTTP, FTTP On demend - are available to you. Ignore speeds, they are calculations/guesses based on historical data.

John
Baglady
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Re: Why has my cabinet not been upgraded from ADSL to FTTC?

Thanks for your comment @jab1 - at least I don't feel like I am the only one who thinks that it's clear that OR dropped the ball and simply forgot to upgrade our cabinet at the same time as all the others! 😞

Re the services that are available, it only lists ADSL products (WBC ADSL 2+, WBC ADSL2+ Annex M, ADSL Max) and further states:

  • The premise/line is associated with exchange which is NOT part of current fibre priority programme.
  • The premise/line is associated with exchange where WLR is not withdrawn.
  • The premise/line is associated with exchange where SOADSL service is restricted.
  • FTTP is not available.
jab1
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Re: Why has my cabinet not been upgraded from ADSL to FTTC?

I didn't think you would have many more options than that, @Baglady , to be truthful, and Annex M is a 'business only' option, can't off the top remember what ADSL Max is supposed to do, but probably not much in your case.

The rest of the detail is as I would expect, given that you seem to be on a forgotten cabinet.

John
Baglady
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Re: Why has my cabinet not been upgraded from ADSL to FTTC?


@jab1 wrote:

I didn't think you would have many more options than that, @Baglady , to be truthful, and Annex M is a 'business only' option, can't off the top remember what ADSL Max is supposed to do, but probably not much in your case.

The rest of the detail is as I would expect, given that you seem to be on a forgotten cabinet.


It does also mention that ADSL Multicast is 'available' - whatever that might be. Do you know what that is, @jab1? I'm assuming because it only says 'available' that it isn't something which is LIVE.

In the meantime, my internet has dropped out completely three times today... the PlusNet fault team heroes are cracking on with investigating this issue. Hopefully, I'll be back up to the 'dizzy' speeds which should be available to me soon...

jab1
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Re: Why has my cabinet not been upgraded from ADSL to FTTC?

Multicast - this explains it better than me - https://community.youview.com/youview/discussion/4488558/multicasting-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-wh...

Hope they sort your drops - and maybe give you a bit more stable connection with maximum connection speed.

John
Baglady
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Re: Why has my cabinet not been upgraded from ADSL to FTTC?


@jab1 wrote:

Multicast - this explains it better than me - https://community.youview.com/youview/discussion/4488558/multicasting-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-wh...

Hope they sort your drops - and maybe give you a bit more stable connection with maximum connection speed.


Thanks, John. I've looked at the info from the link you gave... I'm a bit confused (please bear with me!)... They have written:

  • On both TalkTalk and BT, Multicast IPTV data signals will only be delivered over their fiber networks, and not ADSL or ADSL2.

So why does it say on the BT dsl page that 'ADSL multicast' not only exists but is available...? Sorry if this is a really stupid question... 

jab1
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Re: Why has my cabinet not been upgraded from ADSL to FTTC?

Because BT don't know what they are talking about - a bit like the situation with your CAB10?😁

John
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Re: Why has my cabinet not been upgraded from ADSL to FTTC?

@Baglady 

As I understand it, Multicast is simply a process of reducing video data usage by making popular shows available from a local location thereby reducing the strain on the national network. It's a background system which makes no difference to your service.

 

Not being on FTTC may be down to something as simple as your Cabinet being omitted from a spread sheet in error which went un-noticed over the years. You'll probably never find out why.

 

In very simple terms the Internet is supplied from Internet Head Ends of which I believe there are between 300 & 400. A fibre optic cable is laid from a suitable IHE to the desired location - whether this is an Exchange, a FTTC cabinet or for an FTTP service.

 

For FTTP I believe a heavy duty cable is laid to the general area. Then an Aggregation Node is used to split into local network cables. These run to either the telegraph pole or the underground chamber serving properties where they are connected to a Distribution Node. Properties are then connected to this when a service is ordered.

 

The Distribution Nodes can be "daisy chained" - I believe the one serving my house is the fifth (and last) in the chain.

 

Brian

jab1
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Re: Why has my cabinet not been upgraded from ADSL to FTTC?

Useful information, @bmc  - thanks.

John
Baglady
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Re: Why has my cabinet not been upgraded from ADSL to FTTC?


@jab1 wrote:

Because BT don't know what they are talking about - a bit like the situation with your CAB10?😁


Thanks, John - that made me LOL! 🤣